OnePlus 6T McLaren Edition Hands On

The OnePlus 6T is getting a “Salute to Speed” with the McLaren Edition which increases the RAM to 10GB! The mirrored glass back now comes with a carbon fiber-like accent weave and an orange tint along the bottom.

The internet has unanimously agreed that the OnePlus series of phones is the best bang for your buck that you can get. Umit doesn’t necessarily agree, he thinks the phone is overhyped, and he is right, Android enthusiasts are cult-like with their love of the OnePlus. I do, however, think is he had to shell out for his own devices he might have given the 6T a little more love. The 6T has been my daily driver for nearly a month since I got the Thunder purple and I love the camera, performance and battery life.

The McLaren edition promises to be more performance centered with identical specs save the Warp Charge 30 charge and 10GB of RAM.

Warp Charge 30 gives you a full day’s power in 20 minutes because of integrated circuits in the phone and charger. The power management software allows for 30Watts of power to head into the phone without slowing it down or getting hot. We’ll have more on this in the full review dropping on December 13th. Along with a full breakdown on performance, battery life and camera (which is identical to the 6T, so expect no surprises there).

Today, we’re going to focus in on design and the McLaren edition touches we found in the UX.

The design aesthetic of the signature McLaren is black with a carbon fiber pattern and Papaya Orange accents. The carbon fiber pattern only appears around the camera halfway down the handset. The Papaya orange is elegantly traced up the bottom edge and side of you’ve got a McLaren orange sexily sliding up the handset.

Carbon fiber is at the heart of McLaren cars since 1981 when it was introduced in their Formula 1 car design and later into their cars in 1983.

None of the buttons come with the papaya accent and when you head into the UX you’ll find plenty of little touches.

The software on the McLeran edition is identical to the Android 9.0 found on the 6T, apart from a few little accent color tweaks.

The animation for the in display fingerprint sensor is new, and it is oh so futuristic, however, it is often slow and inaccurate when you compare it to traditional. Unlocks sometimes happen in half a second, but regularly take upwards of 2 seconds. That doesn’t seem like a long time, but it really is when you’re just sitting there staring at an animation wondering if you need to shift your finger. A typical capacitive sensor will recognize or reject a fingerprint in 0.2-0.4 seconds. But the animation is cool, so at least you have that to look at while you wait.

When you first boot it up, you’ll have the option to use the handset for AR to learn more about the collaboration between McLaren and OnePlus. I haven’t found a way to activate this again outside of the initial boot up, hopefully OnePlus makes a QR code available, it’s a neat party trick you’ll want to show friends.

In Settings – Display – Theme – McLaren, allows your OnePlus to have orange accents throughout the UX. In the navigation bar and settings are the easiest places to find them. You have to really like orange, and at Mobile Geeks we do, so we’re pleased that there is a Mobile Geeks theme on this phone!

The display is still the 6.41-inch with an Optic AMOLED panel and a resolution of 2340 x 1080. It is still one of the best in this category, with excellent contrast levels and vibrant colors. When out and about I didn’t have any issues with sunlight visibility.

Unboxing

There is a McLaren Speedmark logo recreated in McLaren-designed F1 AA grade carbon fiber, the same material used in the McLaren MCL22 2018 Formula 1 car. Over six F1 cars’ worth of carbon fiber was used in the production of the Speedmarks.

The device will be available in Western Europe and North America on December 13th with availability in the Nordics, India, and China soon after. The OnePlus 6T McLaren edition is available for $699.

Stay Tuned for the full review that drops on Dec 13th to find out what 10GB of RAM stack up!